Cardinal Cross/Solar Eclipse 2012 [originally sent out mid-2012]

Sometimes we’re all feeling more than just a little pressure to grow and change from our immediate circumstances. The planetary energies this week are particularly strong for us all to take big, brave steps toward becoming better versions of ourselves. Or at least to take a little step in that general direction. Johan Goethe’s quote has never seemed more true than it does this week:

“At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you.”

The Universe does seem to require action in order to create a response. To get what we want we must first act.

But we need to do things differently than in the past. What’s required at this time is a change in intention, coupled with a step in the new direction. One step at a time. Gradual. But we need to be committed to ever taking the next step. The first step is vital, but ultimately we won’t get very far if we don’t follow it with another step. It’s got to be a constant process until we reach our goal.

I know what a part of your mind may be thinking. Us humans hate change unless it’s in the form of money. I believe we’re genetically afraid of change-ing, except when motivated by a looming disaster, threatening just around the next bend. We seem to require a crisis in order to change our ways. What if, instead of waiting for an actual crisis, we simply imagined how bad a crisis we will have if we don’t change our direction? I know there’s nothing quite like adrenaline to get you moving, but if you can possibly allow yourself to be motivated by your imagination instead, it’s generally a lot more pleasant way to create change, and it certainly allows us more time to make a plan instead of just reacting.

Why wait for the actual problem when we can simply envision a better future and take steps to make it come true now? Use that internal tension that we’ve all been feeling for many Moons now. (Alright, for some of us it’s been years, or feels like it has.) You might say we’ve been in the painfully aware stage. Saturn rules the structure of our lives in the material world, including habits of behavior. Until very recently, Saturn has been digging its heels in, resisting change with all it’s got. But Saturn is showing signs of cooperating, so let’s all build a new structure–beginning now.

This week, there is a Grand Cardinal Cross in the sky: Saturn in Libra, the Sun in Cancer, Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries. All four signs are associated with initiating change, and the cross formation gives a great energy that is best used to DO something with. If we don’t do something now, not only will we waste a great opportunity but we’ll still have all that energy building up within us–as stress. The best way to use stress is to put ourselves in motion. We can let the engine race in neutral (feeling stress but not acting), or we can take off the internal brakes, shift into gear, and move forward. You decide the direction. Turn that wheel!

If we push forward now, the Universe will get behind us with even more momentum than usual.

You know deep inside what you need to do, what’s been crying out for change. Make a resolution and follow through. Friday is a Solar Eclipse New Moon, a perfect time to begin a change that will have an effect long into the future. So this weekend, plan to put aside some time to think, feel and take steps to face directly into the direction of your best imaginable future.

Make that change.

Blessings, Rich

 

The Venus Transit [originally sent out early 2012]

Greetings Everyone,

It’s the last time you’ll be around for one of these. It only happens twice every 100 to 130 years, always eight years apart. It is a remarkable planetary dance of the rarest type, and it’s sandwiched in between last month’s Solar Eclipse and this month’s lunar eclipse, to boot! It’s called a “transit of Venus,” and the last half of the latest pair will be happening Tuesday June 5th, from about 4:00 pm til 9:00 pm (PDT).

Venus will appear to move directly across the front of the Sun, as seen from Earth. Unlike an eclipse, it’s not really something you can see with the naked eye, so here is a nice little four minute video that shows you what will happen:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehHY9fTrb7Q&feature=related

Venus passes by the Sun about twice a year. Normally though, it‘s at a different angle to the Earth and it does not pass within the height of the Sun’s disk, so it appears to pass either above or below the Sun. In these times, the Sun’s brightness blocks it out in daylight.

It’s so rare an event that astrologers have precious little experience to rely on in trying to interpret it, but there are some interesting clues. Every pair of Venus transits over a period of 4000 years (including this year’s) has occurred in Sagittarius and Gemini, which are signs that govern communication and exploration. It’s said that Venus transits mark breakthroughs in communications, revolutions of understanding, and shifts in consciousness.

For instance, in the eight years between the Venus transits of the 16th century, Magellan began the first circumnavigation of the globe and Cortez encountered the Aztec culture; just the year before, the Protestant reformation began. During the 17th century’s transits, Descartes published his ideas that led to the reductionist view of thought that dominates our western culture even today. These are revolutionary ideas and explorations that changed history drastically.

The transits of Venus connect with the ancient Mayan and Aztec cultures’ beliefs about one of their primary gods, Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl, respectively. The Mayans believed that a Venus transit was a key timing “trigger” in history. The later Aztecs believed that Quetzalcoatl would return when a Venus transit occurred. But the very next year, they got the Conquistadores instead.

Venus’ orbital patterns connect in such a way that between its transits, its path of motion with respect to the Earth traces out quite a harmonious geometric pattern. It is based on the famous mathematical ratio 1.6 (8 years, 5 cycles), known as the “Divine Proportion:” http://www.summum.us/philosophy/phi.shtml

What will happen now, or is happening now, since the first half of this Venus transit happened in 2004? How about internet-based social media for one? What else have you seen, and what might happen in the rest of this 2012 year? Keep all this in mind as we move forward into this critical transitional time in our human history.

A primary interpretation of Mayan prophecy states that a new consciousness will be born on the occasion of 2012’s Venus transit. (Can you think of a better time to meditate for enlightenment, or envision a better future for our planet and its life?)

More on 2012 to come.

Peace, Rich

The 13th Sign [originally sent out April 2012]

Good Day Everyone,

And happy full moon.

You may have noticed that Astrology hit the national media this week; it was just a short filler-type article, but it generated plenty of buzz all over the place. In line with the idea that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” I’m going to take it as a chance to educate and enlighten.

It was reported that there is now a 13th zodiac sign and that all the dates have been changed for each sign. This is not true; your sign did not change. Apparently, when an astronomer was being interviewed recently about something called the precession of the equinoxes, he noted that some years ago astronomers had decided to change the zodiac so that it fit the current sky more perfectly. This story was widely reported a few years back, but with the rise of the internet and social media it got a whole lot more notice this time around.

The astronomers hadn’t consulted with the astrologers before they made that change. But that’s not surprising, considering that nearly all astronomers don’t believe in astrology, simply on the basis that they can’t measure it. Unfortunately, in the scientific community, unmeasurability tends to preclude the possibility that something might be true. I believe that one day we will find a way to measure the effects that astrologers have seen for millennia, and that science can then be reunited with what is now considered spiritual or the occult. (Occult literally means “hidden.”)

The reason the astronomers added a 13th sign is that there is a fairly large constellation that appears to bridge the gap between two of the others. They didn’t like the gap that they saw. If you look at any star chart of the constellations, you’ll see that they’re all different sizes and some take up a lot more of the sky than others. Yet the zodiac signs have always been equal in length, because they were simply named for a constellation that happened to take up a big part of that piece of the sky; the zodiac signs were not named after the constellations. Astronomers are simply taking things literally, seeking to fill in a gap that made no sense to them.

The twelve signs of the zodiac were created thousands of years ago, when the sky looked different. Over great periods of time, the precession of the equinoxes causes them to change position with respect to the Earth’s orientation. This is a long-known and indisputable fact. But the astronomers don’t understand that it’s not the constellations that create the effects we observe in astrology. Rather, it is a part of the sky—as divided into twelve equal pieces—and anchored to the Earth’s seasons. Two thousand years ago, when the zodiac signs were given their present names, they were about thirty degrees away from the constellations that bear their names today. (A constellation is just some stars that reminded someone of a picture when they connected them in their minds, and nothing more.) Two thousand years from now, they will all be about thirty degrees farther along, and in 26,000 years they will have returned to where they are now.

(But this is all just talking about the northern hemisphere; the constellations are different south of the equator. In fact, you can’t see most of our northern stars from Australia, but the zodiac signs are the same down under as they are here, because they are connected to the seasons not the constellations. They were simply named after how the sky looked 2000 years ago, and the naming was done in the northern hemisphere.)

There is, however, another way in which your sign actually might be different than the one you have grown to associate with your birthday. There is a tradition developed in ancient India—when the sky was different—called Vedic astrology. It is a different system with a different focus than Western astrology, and it is very useful in many ways. But they still use the old sky to determine the dates, so the first ten days or so of each sign are considered to be still in the previous sign. So someone born in the first several days of Gemini here is considered to be a Vedic Taurus. Just to be clear, Vedic uses the same twelve signs that we do today, not the thirteen of the recent astronomers.

The bottom line for you is that no one’s sign has changed. None of your planets or house positions has changed. What has changed is the power of the internet to amplify the media. Someone in the media apparently didn’t know that the same facts had been widely reported a few years ago, and apparently it was a slow news day, so the old news story got put onto all the major media outlets as if it was new. It went viral because of our new hyper-connectedness, and a whole lot of people heard about the story for the first time. It was a media distortion based on misunderstanding. It’s now easier to spread information far and wide in very little time, easier than it ever has been before. Let us all keep in mind that rumors can be spread just as well as any fact, so beware. Traditional journalists normally double-checked their facts before publishing something, because their reputations were on the line. Apparently, accuracy has now taken a backseat to entertainment, and many people who comment on the news are only doing so to keep the pot stirred up—thereby to keep their audience stirred up, excited. Good or bad, excitement sells.

(If you’d like to find out what your rising or Moon signs are, or what it all means, please contact me.)

Have a great year ahead—Rich

P.S., A few years ago a similar thing happened regarding the re-designation of Pluto. Pluto still does what it always has, but a small majority of astronomers decided it was too small to be called a planet and changed its title. Many other astronomers disagreed but were out-voted, an example that in science not everything is clear cut either.